He added: “Debris was flying around and houses was (sic) basically exploding beside me.”

The Paducah Sun reported there were fields of debris from West Paducah through southern Illinois.

Officials say they have confirmed that five people died when tornadoes hit central and southern Illinois, ABC-7 reported.

Melanie Arnold of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency a person was killed in Washington when a tornado struck that central Illinois community on Sunday. She did not have any details about the victim.

Earlier in the day, the county coroner in Washington County in southern Illinois said that an elderly man and his sister died when a tornado struck their farm house in the town of New Minden, about 50 miles southeast of St. Louis.

The storm that struck New Minden and Washington was part of a series of intense thunderstorms and tornadoes that swept across the Midwest on Sunday, causing extensive damage in several Illinois communities.